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A Washington state-based fertility clinic is advertising sex selection in a British Columbia newspaper for Indo-Canadians.

An ad for the Washington Center for Reproductive Medicine appears in the Indo-Canadian Voice, encouraging readers to "create the family you want . . . boy or girl" using reproductive technologies.

The Bellevue, Wash., clinic's advertisement appears in the print edition of the weekly Vancouver-area paper, and on the publication's website.

The clinic performs biopsies on embryos slated for in vitro fertilization (IVF) and tests their DNA to determine the sex. Selected embryos are then implanted in the mother's uterus. The process, known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), will "virtually guarantee successful gender selection," according to the centre's website.

Sabrina Atwal was "appalled" by the ad because she says it highlights the low value of women and girls in the Indo-Canadian community.

"A lot of times, girls are fighting for their lives before they're even born," said Atwal, a project director with the Indo-Canadian Women's Association in Edmonton.

Son preference is prevalent in Indo-Canadian communities because of the history of dowries and the perceived ability of a boy to better care for his parents, Atwal said.

"There's a belief that the family's not complete until there's a boy," she said.

When the idea that boys are more valuable than girls meets with science and technology, the balance of the sexes can be tipped, she said.

"In India, technology and science have progressed further than civil society," Atwal said. "The gender ratios are highly skewed in some areas because the opportunity is there to act on their impulse."

PGD was first developed to identify embryos carrying genetic abnormalities that could lead to a disease such as cystic fibrosis or hemophilia. Dr. Jeff Nisker was at the forefront of PGD development in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and hoped his research would help avoid severe genetic conditions.

Once the public learned of the new science, more than half of all the inquires his team received were from people who already had a daughter and now wanted a son, said Nisker, a professor of obstetrics-gynaecology and oncology at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University in London, Ont.

He's continued his PGD research in recent years, including a study that asked Canadians their thoughts on the science. The results, Nisker said, were fascinating.

"Canadians as a whole were not sure where we should be drawing lines."

Nisker said he didn't become a doctor to help people choose the sex of their child.

"We have an imperative to be working on and helping women with serious conditions, not for designer babies, whether it's sex or any other characteristics" he said.

For Atwal, the problem is not how the science is being used, but the values guiding those who chose to pursue PGD and other forms of sex selection.

"Nothing's wrong with IVF and choosing how you reproduce," said Atwal. "The issue is that they're really emphasizing a large problem in our community in terms of how women are viewed."

Canada's Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which became law in 2004, prohibits sex selection of an in vitro embryo, except in the case of a sex-linked disease or disorder.

Sex selection is already in the spotlight after a study released on Monday showed South Korean- and Indian-born women in Canada have an unusually high proportion of boys born as second babies.

The study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found the ratio of boys to girls for mothers of all ethnicities on their first birth was about 1.05 to one. The number stayed fairly consistent for second births for mothers from most countries.

However, the ratio grew to 1.11 to one for Indian-born mothers and 1.2 to one for South Korean-born mothers.

"Our findings raise the possibility that couples originating from India may be more likely than Canadian-born couples to use prenatal sex determination and terminate a second or subsequent pregnancy if the fetus is female," says the study, which was led by Dr. Joel Ray, a physician in Toronto.

The Washington Center for Reproductive Medicine and the Indo-Canadian Voice could not be reached for comment.

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